Reviews

Eternal Suffering: Drowning in tragedy

29/05/12 || InquisitorGeneralis

I tend to stay away from brutal and/or slam death metal. Just like I tend to stay away from chubby, needy, greasy women. Doesn’t mean I don’t get all up in one every now and then when the feeling is right. Go big or go home…is the saying that gets me though those long, dark nights of soul.

Rewind the tape to a few weeks ago; I am sitting around drinking gin and tonics with Misery Index drummer Adam Jarvis. That brutish lovechild played me the very strange intro track “Midnight’s embrace”. which sound like a shitty self-help tape from the 70’s…which is probably is. I was wondering if too many gins and tonics combined with years of brain-bashing blasting had finally taken their toll on Misery Index’s veteran skinsman. However, when “My shadowed desire” kicked in I knew what all the fuss was about. Blasts, cookie-monster vocals, double bass, slams…I’m feeling young and violent all over again! I am also getting a “Killing on Adrenaline” vibe from this, and we know how Dying Fetus raises my flesh flag of war.

However, Eternal Suffering are no Fetus. They are broken up, not well known, and this record is no Class6(66). What it is though is a nice break from today’s rapidly overflowing world of over-produced technical metal. I still love my Obscuras and Abysmal Dawns, but Eternal Suffering’s raw sound and punishing style touched a nerve that those newer, more polished bands sometimes miss. I am not going to get in to a song-by-song analysis, but I find myself easily listening to “Drowning in penises” all the way through while playing some Call of Duty or Gears of War. It is good killing music. Sure, you will start to hear some very similar sounding sections and riffs here and there, but in the case repetition is not the fly that spoils the ointment.

If anything with hints of slambrutal death turns you off, stay away from Eternal Suffering. However, if you enjoy some well-done breakdowns, straight-up blasty ear-fuckings, and listenable metal with a gritty production, you will enjoy a pretty large chunk of “Drowning in Tragedy”. It is no masterpiece, and the band (sadly) is long gone, but it is nice to run across a band form not-too-distant past who has something to offer.